Rendering images as text
Text Art
© Lead Image © anan punyod, 123RF.com
If you need to display an image in the terminal or as plain HTML, a variety of smart tools can help with the conversion.
Thanks to increasingly sophisticated technology, displaying high-resolution images on screen is no longer a difficult task. However, these more detailed images (with a combination of greater image size, resolution, and color depth) come at a cost, consuming more storage space and taking longer to download from remote sources, such as web browsers and webcams.
Sometimes you just need an image to display quickly. You can save time and bandwidth by displaying images at a lower resolution and color depth as text (ASCII or Unicode characters) directly in the terminal and converting them with American National Standards (ANSI) color codes [1]. You can also convert the images to plain HTML and CSS and embed the results in a web page. Some text browsers, such as ELinks, then display these images directly in the accessed web page. In a similar manner, the Browsh [2] browser does this internally and can also render images as text.
In this article, we will discuss the available tools for converting images to text and explore whether this approach is suitable for everyday use. This article follows up on a previously published article [3] that dealt with tools for creating ASCII art.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
Danish Ministry of Digital Affairs Transitions to Linux
Another major organization has decided to kick Microsoft Windows and Office to the curb in favor of Linux.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.